As a child, I gamified various parts of my life. Some of it was re-enforced by my mother or Sunday School (gimme all them gold stars), and some of it was a tactic employed to squeeze some enjoyment out of things I didn't want to do.

As any one knows, ticking items off a to-do list gives a natural high. So if I could manufacture that high, then I held the power to… well, to everything. My own will-power could be manipulated.

If you aren’t sure what gamification is, skip to section 3 of my paper on Gamification to get an idea of the ways it's being used.

Amusingly (well, I think so anyway), even my professional work performance fluctuates depending on the resources available for me to gamify my productivity. Can I see statistics on my ticket closure for the week? Can I see which colleague closes the most tickets on what subject? Is there a graph for that too? Oh, is that… is that a burndown chart?!

Perhaps this is why data and reporting interests me so much, although I haven’t considered which is the cause and effect.

Ok, back to the present.

Since setting up our Xbox here in our new pad, I’ve felt myself become more discontent with my downtime. A gaming sessions never feels long enough, or never occur often enough.

I didn’t have a problem with this in the first month after our move, because gaming was more of an inconvenience than a time to recharge. Instead, I did a lot more reading, But now that the console sits there taunting me daily, I’ve found myself become more selfish with my time and more impatient with “time-wasters” (people). And while those inclinations have not manifested themselves into actions, the urge to be unhappy with time spent not gaming remains and I’ve found myself more prone to bouts of ill-temperedness. I easily reflect on this and groan at the ENTITLEMENT. I’m an embarrassment to myself.

Kyle’s solution to this would be to convince me to stop being quite so productive, and indulge in a good gaming session. However, even he agrees that in the grand scheme things, gaming is undeniably not important. Or at least, not as important as other forms of downtime, ones I am not addicted to and that don’t create an ill-tempered Simone if they are denied.

Am I describing the characteristics of an addict? I’m no expert, but I think I am.

Keep in mind, I game approximately 2 hours a week. Which is next to nothing compared to any one of my friends. And I am very intentional with my downtime, because if I don’t manage it well, I become an emotional wreck, which isn’t fair on Kyle.

So, I have come up with an experiment.

When I do sit down to play games, I often feel guilty that I’m neglecting my duties (which I usually am), so I’ve gamified my to-do list and reward system to encourage me to not only complete my chores (which I never do) but to also enjoy my rewards guilt-free.

I recently downloaded Todoist which is one of the top To-do apps around at the moment. The app itself already has a bit of a gamification element to it called Karma, but I’ve turned this feature off.

What you can do is set a daily task goal. I can confirm that I consistently never reach my goal, even though it’s only 10.

My To-do list is predominantly tasks I am meant to complete daily, like clean the kitchen and run through my physio activities. I nearly never do these tasks.

Previously, I attempted to outsmart myself by breaking things down into subtasks, so there were more things to tick off, but that experiment only lasted a week.

This time, I’m trying something new.

The rules:

Every completed task gains me 5 minutes of gaming

I have slightly changed what kind of tasks I put on my to-do list to better suit this experiment, but for the most part, things are the same.

Gaming time earned stacks over the week

If I’ve had a slack week, then at least I end Friday with half an hour of game time I know I deserved, even if the kitchen dishes have reached the roof. This also means that if a planned gaming session doesn't occur on a particular night, I don’t lose out on the time I’ve earned.

Game time cannot be earned on Sundays

I don’t game on Sundays anyway, unless Kyle and are mowing down The Covenant.

Theorised Outcome:

Guilt-free gaming sessions

Often, I avoid gaming because I know I’m just procrastinating on other tasks. And when I do game, it’s not relaxing because I know I’m procrastinating. So then, this experiment should see some more quality gaming, resulting in lower stress levels (hopefully).

Intentional gaming sessions

Pre-planned gaming sessions are the best gaming sessions. What am I going to play? What am I going to progress today? Why am I playing this specific game? Do I even feel like gaming right now?
It may even help me to be more prepared for the Podcast each week, if I can attempt to play games that will enhance the show.

Dissipation of entitlement

This is a strange one.
I’m unsure why, but the more I want to game, the more selfish I am with my time. With the Xbox in the house, I rarely want to socialise or even leave home. I mean, why would I when all my favourite things exist in this apartment? That includes Kyle.
Often times I want to reward myself for going out and socialising by having a ‘good’ gaming session when I return. As said social event goes on longer and longer, I get anxious that I’m being robbed of a social recharge and then turn to blame the people I’m with instead of my own selfishness.
With this experiment, I hope to prolong the ‘reward’ of a tiring social outing by promising myself that I will get a gaming session, even if it’s not tonight. This should reduce my anxiety. (This won't work on Sundays but that's a different story).

And lastly,

More time spent doing other things

If I come to the end of a tiring day, and I don't have any game time in the bank, this then forces me to do something else as part of downtime.
Read a book, do some painting, pray, journal, research the running speed of a bear. All things I claim I never have time to do, but are all wonderful and I enjoy doing.

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So, here’s an idea of my daily list. The dates in red give you an indication of the last time I actually completed them. Sub-tasks also count as 5 minutes game time. So for example, most of my physio activities involve three reps and I’ve broken them down into subtasks. Completing three reps rewards me 15 minutes of game time. This may end up being too much, but currently I’m doing zero physio, so this could be the kick up the bum I need.

There are, of course, other activities to tick off too, like “do a good job at work”. I added this one because spending 8 hours working needed it’s own reward, and currently, I see no reason to increase the reward amount further than 5 minutes. At least work counts for something.

Let's see how this goes!